Ray
knelt in the doorway, as bullets smashed into
the bricks and plaster around him showering
his immaculate black suit in dust. He slammed
another clip into his MP5K and released the
cocking handle with a satisfying 'click'.
He smiled, in these situations it was good
to have something fully automatic, and with
the mooks numbering in the late twenties it’s
only sensible to pack at least a bullet for
each of them. Ray stood up as the gunfire
hitting the doorway stopped. He peeped around
the corner and quickly took note, 28 of them,
almost the entire clip. Still, at least he’d
have two rounds spare for what ever came next…
he stepped out of the doorway and squeezed
the trigger.
So
why is the book called Golden Comeback?
Well, this is the source
book for the good guys, the players –
The Dragons. Of all the various factions in
the secret war, only one of them truly fights
for justice and freedom without the hope of
personal gain, meet The Dragons. They are
a mismatch of all-out-good-guys, reluctant
heroes and knife-edge maniacs who just happen
to be fighting the bad guys. The Dragons have
done pretty well for themselves and managed
to remain a thorn in the side to many of the
less savoury factions.
This winning streak came
to an end in Operation Killdeer. This was
a routine mission for The Dragons, but after
a vicious skirmish several of them lay dead
and the rest were in hiding. To me ‘Golden
Comeback’ is what the players are going
to be. They are going to join The Dragons
and take the fight back to the enemy, with
gun-toting, fu-fighting, spell-chucking mayhem,
heralding the comeback of The Dragons.
Ok,
so what’s in the book?
Loads of stuff, so I’ll
break it down. Firstly we learn about The
Dragons. The book introduces most of the major
characters and gives us a little background
info on why each of them is fighting the secret
war and what they hope to gain from it. Each
character also has a short story, which adds
a little more info to the history of The Dragons
and helps the players get a feel for the faction.
Next up we have a section
on improving your character. This ranges from
tips to help you create a more believable
hero (like personality and history), to building
on how you play your character during the
game. I particularly liked this last part,
it gives an example of a situation you may
get into during a game session, then explores
how different character types will deal with
it. This may prove helpful for some of the
players out there who tend to keep playing
themselves in a different body rather than
actually taking on the persona the have created.
Chapter 3 is crammed with
extra game goodness. We have new Shticks,
new Fu, new Transformed Animal packages (yeah!),
new Guns (mmm... guns), new Arcanoweird Devices
(nice), Gadgets, new Sorcery, and two new
character types. Some of the stuff isn’t
as good as I’d come to expect from Atlas
games and I can’t see any of my players
using either of the new character types. But
most of the content is well-written, well
thought up and cries out to be used in the
next game I run.
Chapter 4 has more game
mechanic related content. There are additional
rules for fighting, which my players have
all enjoyed trying out on my poor mooks. They
have also come up with a pretty decent set
of rules for car chases. This is something
I have always found slightly lacking in RPG’s
(barring Mutant Chronicles and Blue Planet,
which are very good). There are also stats
and silhouette pictures for a selection of
contemporary vehicles as well as some from
the 2056 juncture.
Wow!
It sounds packed… so you liked it, but
do I need it?
I reckon the answer is YES!
When I buy I new RPG, I always like to get
the main rules, the screen and the primary
sourcebook at the same time. The thinking
behind the sourcebook is as follows. You make
a game and you have some of the stuff that
could have been in the rulebook but didn’t
fit left over, then you notice a few changes
you’d like to make, finally you talk
to people who’ve been playing the game
and they have some good ideas. Combine all
this with the extra stuff you’ve thought
of since the game came out and the extra background
you've dreamed up and you usually have a damn
fine book, which is a compulsory purchase
and worth every penny.
The Dragons will need help
to keep the forces of good thrashing bad-guy-butt
in the secret war, this book is the answer...
bow before it.
Also: Something of note
I missed on my first read through the book,
on the final page - a 2 page "For Brand
New Roleplayers" was removed from the
book to save space but you can get it from
their website which can be found at www.atlas-games.com
Well worth a read and it made me smile, so
check it out.
Reviewed By Jon Simpson |
